A Joburg community and the police are engaged in a fierce battle over an alleged attempted kidnapping of a schoolgirl, with residents taking to the streets in outrage.
While police insist that no one has come forward to report the matter, those who were allegedly responsible for trying to abduct the youngster in Eldorado Park were severely beaten and have since been hospitalised.
According to community members, the drama unfolded early yesterday as the young girl, believed to be aged between 9 and 11, was walking to Eldorado Park Primary School, where she is a pupil.
Shane Fourie, who has a child at the same school, said that as the girl was about to enter the premises, two men who were believed to be recyclers attempted to grab her.
“She started screaming and holding on to the palisade (fence),” said Fourie.
The commotion caught the attention of several community members, who rushed to the scene.
Fourie said that once they realised what was happening, they sprang into action and tried to apprehend the men.
The recyclers then apparently ran into the streets around the school but were eventually caught by some of the residents.
The outraged residents, many of them parents of pupils who attend the school, then allegedly took the law into their own hands and started assaulting the men.
Members of the Eldorado Park community clash with public order police following an alleged kidnapping saga in the area on Friday. Picture: Timothy Barnard/African News Agency (ANA)
The bloodied clothes of one of the men still lay in a nearby street in the area when the Saturday Star visited the scene yesterday.
About 100 fuming residents continued to stake out the school long after the attack had ocurred and demanded that their children be released from school as they feared for their safety.
“Our children can’t learn in this condition,” said Nicola Goka, whose son attends the school.
She claimed that local police were not doing enough to protect the community, especially children.
Other parents who spoke to the Saturday Star claimed that the recyclers wanted to kidnap the girl to sell her body parts for muti.
“They live in a place that is called ‘lapland', where they sell muti, use drugs and sleep with prostitutes,” a parent said.
Around noon, community members made their way to the police station where they burnt tyres and barricaded the streets as they demanded that the men be arrested and face the full might of the law.
Members of the Eldorado Park community clash with public order police following an alleged kidnapping saga in the area on Friday. Picture: Timothy Barnard/African News Agency (ANA)
But Eldorado Park police spokesperson Captain Philemon Khorombi said no one had come forward to report the case to them.
“We are appealing to the community to work with us and not take matters into their own hands,” he said.
He said the men had since been questioned, while community members said the girl was safe in the care of her parents.